Some collectors here appear to steadfastly adhere to a singular collecting theme. Others are generalists who maintain a diverse collection of Ancient coins. Yet others maintain a main emphasis collection and one or more side collections. What is your way of collecting Ancient coins?
Generalist/Drifter. I weave in and out of various areas of ancients. I do focus mainly on Roman Tetradrachms, but I will weave into Parthian, then maybe Byzantine, then a few Roman Imperials. I also weave out of ancients & go into Medieval and World Moderns. I love both equally. It really depends on $ & what is available in my budget for the week or month.
My collecting themes have changed over the years, due mainly because of my ever expanding numismatic palette. Here are the four main stages I've gone through during my sixteen years of collecting: 1. Flavian denarii. 2. Flavian imperial silver. 3. Flavian imperial and provincial silver. 4. All imperial and provincial Flavian coinage. Each stage was a major leap forward. The last/current one will keep me busy for several lifetimes!
I started off collecting Roman Imperial coins - mostly Julio-Claudian asses, dupondii and sestertii. Later I added some denarii and a (very) few aurei. Eventually I added a side collection of Tetrarchic coins and much later another side collection of coins of the English Civil War Kings. I have now broken up the Tetrarchic coin side collection and English Civil War side collection and have ended up with two main Roman Imperial coin collections: Julio-Claudian coins and coins with Romano-Britannic associations. There are several cross-over coins. My emphasis is on coins with important (to me) historical association rather than condition and appearance.
I am a generalist. Sub-collections or themes have popped up in my collection but those are just guided by my interest at the time.
My initial goal is a coin of every emperor (and usurpers when available) as well significant family members who issued coinage. I don't really stick with themes however I seem to be focusing on the Roman coinage of Alexandria because of the interesting reverse types. For example, Triptolemus pulling a chariot, Triumphal arches, Canopic jar depictions, and so on. I would love to get my hands on a drachm depicting the zodiac, but I have yet to find one even at a semi-reasonable price. Since I've visited the site of Antinoopolis (modern Sheikh-el-Bada), I am keen to get a drachm of Antinous as well. Since I don't have one I'll share a relatively common type of Hadrian. Egypt, Alexandria - Hadrian. (117-138) Year 127-128 Type: AE Drachm, 32mm 24.42 grams Obverse: AVT KAI TPAI AAPIA CEB, Laureate draped and cuirassed bust right Reverse: LDW (delta) EK in exergue, Nilos reclining left upon a crocodile, holding cornucopia and reed, Genius emerging from the cornucopia and pointing at letters IS in upper field Reference: Milne 1269
At present, I am firmly in the "generalist" camp and my holdings in ancients are such a relatively small subset of the rest of my (also-small) collection that I can really only claim to be a mere dabbler. In the past, however, I followed the "one per emperor/empress" theme in Romans as far as I could (ended up with over 100 different faces in that portrait gallery), and later, I completed a mixed bronze and silver set along the popular "Twelve Caesars" theme. *The first collection did not include all Twelve Caesars because it was an "A-to-Z" (Augustus to Zeno) collection, and thus lacked Julius Caesar.
My favorite college professor once told me that a proper goal in life is to know a little about everything and everything about a little. Neither of these goals is achievable any more than you can count all the way to infinity or chill something to absolute zero but there is nothing wrong with setting our goals as approachables rather than achievables and never expecting to finish. There is no failure when there is no finish line. In coins, I translate this to mean I should collect a coin or two of many descriptions and as many coins as I can from my specialties. I cheat and refuse to buy anything that I find completely boring or priced so high that I would have to compromise my collections in more desired areas. I do not collect modern coins (I have a few but most have been with me for 50 years when I still found them interesting). I do not collect popular 'rarities' in high grades (Biblical, Caesar portraits, gold unless it has something going for it other than being gold). I do collect anything that speaks to me saying, "Buy me, please." The number one thing on my want list is any interesting coin that I did not previously know to exist but that I believe I should have known had I not been too blind to see it before. My specialties: 1. Coins of Septimius Severus and Julia Domna 193-195 Eastern mints (including unofficial) 2. Coins of Septimius Severus 193 Rome 3. Alexandrian 4. Technically interesting, odd or weird coins including but not limited to errors (only ancient/medieval) 5. Coins that I never expected to see but somehow got lucky I have posted each of these here so many times that I must apologize for showing them again. Groups 1 through 4 are represented in my collection by 50-1000 coins. Group 5 is much less frequent but very special to me. All together the five groups make up about half of my coins with the other half being 'general' and 'asked nicely' types. When I get between 50 and 100 coins in an area, I ask myself if it is time to declare a new specialty or to back off saying 'enough'. My interest in late Roman has been falling off to the point that I have sold or given away some that I once would have kept. It lost its status as a 'specialty' but several LR coins are still included in other specialties.
If a coin appeals to me and I can afford it, I get it. If it has a story behind it, so much the better. My budget is smaller than it once was. I recently splashed out on my most expensive coin, a gold celtic stater for 1,200 GBP, this was due to an insurance policy that matured. Husband bought a bike! I had always wanted one, and why not. I have only been collecting for about 6 years, if I had decades behind me, things may have been different. I have had the BEST six years
When I started collecting I was basically buying everything I liked. Now I figured out what kind of area's/kingdoms I prefer. I have a couple of themes, which are coins from the region of Epeiros, coins from the Greek islands and coins from the Seleukid empire. And some smaller themes like coins from the reign of Mithridates VI of Pontos and all Byzantine anonymous follis types. But on the end, I always stick to: "If I really like it, I buy it" (or atleast I try to buy it ).
I started out as a generalist, collecting anything Greek or Roman: Then I veered off and started to collect Islamic medieval coinage: Then I flirted with Indian ancient and medieval coinage: and once I grew bored with all that, I even dabbled in medieval European coinage: But eventually I drifted away from medieval coinage altogether and started collecting ancient Chinese coinage: But these days I'm back to collecting only ancient Greek and Roman coinage...and I'm a generalist in those two areas. With a Max cap of 200 coins for my collection, as a generalist I doubt my Greek and Roman collection will ever be considered "coherent" by specialists, but I just buy and collect what I like and that's all that really matters to me...
I collect Roman coins, primarily imperial and provincial, primarily of the principate. That doesn't mean I don't have a few republican coins or coins of the dominate. I collect silver and bronze coins -- no gold for budgetary reasons -- and I'll acquire just about any coin of the principate if it strikes my fancy. I do have some areas of interest: The Faustinas: Coins with Venus: Trebonianus Gallus and Volusian: Gallienus (especially the zoo): Confronted busts on provincial coins:
Oh, but I do have one side collection that I just started - The Restoration coinage of Titus - and I just made the following example one of my “Twenty”. AUGUSTUS AS, TITUS RESTORATION ISSUE, 80-81 AD (27mm, 10.71 gm) BMCRE Volume II, Rome, Titus No. 273-275 RIC Volume II, Part 1 (second edition), Titus, No. 462 Obverse depiction: Augustus, radiate head facing left Inscription: DIVVS AV GVSTVS PATER Reverse depiction: Eagle with wings spread standing on Globe Inscription: IMP T CAES AVG RESTITVIT - S C (above, left and right)
Really interesting to see the different focal areas of the collectors here...Quite diverse!.....And some great coins... I suppose I'm similar to @Mat a bit of everything except I own 'Zero Greek'... at the moment...And as @dougsmit said if something catches my eye I go for it..Usually abstract portraits... My main set, if you want to call it that, is the Kashmir series where now I'm beginning to expand into the Muslim take over although coins not photographed yet...@jamesicus super web page...
@Bing...Wow what a set! ....I don't know this series well, hence the question...Why is there a space between the 2 Legio III coins? Are there different variants?
That is Legio III and Legio IIII. The space was purely for aesthetics. Those that know this series of coins can see that there are a couple missing from the set. But they are either so rare I will never acquire one, or fantasy of some collectors imagination.